Prologue
To give you some background before I go into the content here, I had just concluded a successful interview (the first of two) and was stopping by the library on my way home. The trip from there was bizarre – random acts of generosity sprung up, seriously making me wonder whether the world was conspiring to be generous, or whether it was some kind of karma day.
Act I: A mother with a stroller
I held the door open. Seems ordinary enough, right? It all started here.
A mother with three kids, one of which was in a stroller, was trying to get out the front door. Maybe that entrance wasn’t accessible, because the door wasn’t opening for them.
So before I entered, I held the door open for them, allowing her to get her stroller out.
I entered the library no wiser that this was the first act of many.
Act II: Library
I only had to check in two books, and the library has self-serve check-in machines, to which I wandered when I entered.
It’s really an easy process, but the lady overseeing check-in still had to help the patron in front of me, for whom it was probably a first-time experience.
“Yeah, that’s it. You just push here on the screen and put your books on the table.”
My usual experiences with librarians are far worse.
Act III: Viva
Viva bus at a bus terminal; credit IRT.BMT.IND (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0)
I ran across the street to catch the bus that was about to leave.
For those of you unfamiliar with this transit system, an individual with a ticket ‘validates’ the ticket on a machine before boarding the bus. That’s what I attempted to do.
The machine that takes in a ticket and validates it
I became frustrated because the machine wouldn’t take in the ticket – even after 4 or 5 tries, and even more frustrated because I was making the bus wait. I gave up, and boarded anyways through the door beside the driver. I genuinely intended to validate the ticket.
A minute or two into the ride, I asked the driver whether it was okay if I validated the ticket at my destination. His response surprised me.
“Sure… if you want.”
What the heck? Now, Viva is nicknamed “Free-va” because of the honour system on which fares work. Offenders keep their tickets without validating them – avoiding the fare – and are occasionally caught by enforcement officers.
Was this generosity, entrapment, or plain dereliction?
I fully intended to validate my ticket at the destination.
Trust is based on the principle that humans can depend on other humans. It involves the mutual understanding that one will act in the interests of the other, and that certain pieces of information may be shared without negative repercussions. Trust is a good thing; there is no doubt about that. However, it remains to be determined whether confidentiality and secrets are in one’s interests.
Anatomy of a Secret
Secrets are pieces of information known only to an elite — that is, confined to the knowledge of a (usually small) group. A secret is divulged willingly when the following conditions are met:
- Person A trusts person B to exercise “good judgement” in the application of the information
- A trusts B to keep the secret “secret”, known only to a small group
- A is the source of the secret OR A is not under obligation to keep it entirely secret to the existing elite
Additionally, secrets are willingly divulged with the following restrictions:
- B will not reveal the information to anyone unless A approves
- B will not harm or attempt to harm A directly or indirectly
(On a side note, it is entirely illogical and unreasonable for B to impose restrictions on A with regards to the secret, since the propagation of the secret will not harm B, who is not the source of the secret.)
At first glance, secrets appear to be good because they require trust (already proven to be a good concept) and establish a purpose-driven relationship. However, the reality is that secrets are built on the basis of a lack of trust.
By definition, secrets are known only to a small group, of which the members are ‘trustworthy’ according to the judgement of the source. This implies:
- The knowledge is NOT known to a much larger group
The primary reason that secrets are kept is that the information could be misused in some way to harm the source of the secret. This implies that those who know will NOT misuse the information, having gained trust. This also implies that those who are denied knowledge could misuse the information — this suspicion is termed ‘mistrust’.
‘Mistrust’ is the belief that those who may be trustworthy have an ulterior motive or intend malice. The application of this hostility takes place in the divulging of secrets.
Much more insight follows the jump. Continue reading »
